Thursday, June 3, 2010

Lite Brite Optical Illusion

My daughter discovered this optical illusion created by her Lite-Brite. It appears to magnify the tiny holes on the other side of the box. What causes this phenomenon? I'm guessing it's related to the way a rosette pattern is created when the dot patterns are angled improperly during the printing process. Any other guesses?

I just watched it again and I think the "magnified" dots stay the same size as I change distance from the Lite-Brite, but they appear to get larger due to the relative size of the box; the box appears to become smaller as I step away from it, but the dots don't, so the dots look larger in relation to the box. Does that make sense?